A typical compound archery bow includes a pulley at one end and an eccentric cam at the appropriate end around which the cable of the bowstring is passed. The stringing or tuning of a twin cam bow, with its eccentrically mounted cam and its pulley, tension cable and bow string is critical to achieve a proper balance of the eccentrically mounted pulleys or cams. The complexity of the stringing and the sensitivity to proper tuning of the bow, makes it very difficult to string and tune a compound bow without the aid of a bow press.
Periodic retuning of compound bows is often required to maintain desired performance levels. For this and to change, replace or repair components of the compound bow, such as the bowstring, string sights, dampers, the tension cable, the cams and other components, a bow press is essentially required.
Through the years a number of bow presses have been developed for facilitating stringing and maintenance of compound bows. In general, these presses have included a stationary base having a pair of spaced apart inside surface supports, in the form of pegs or rollers, for contacting the inside of the bow, and a pair of limb supports, in the form of pegs or rollers, attached to a movable mechanism for applying a bending force to the limbs of the bow. Such a bow press is described in Gibbs, U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,824.
It is very important that the inside surface support and the limb supports of the bow press be precisely positioned in such a manner that the bow is properly loaded into the press in a manner that when the limbs are bent, the forces will not overstress or otherwise damage the bow. Because compound bows vary dimensionally, particularly in riser length, it is necessary that the inside surface support and the limb supports on the bow press be adjustable. In the past, it has been customary to provide incremental holes in the bow press so that the position of the inside surface support and the limb supports could be moved to achieve a satisfactory fit with regard to a given bow. The incremental nature of this adjustment approach often results in a fit of the bow press to the bow which is not quite ideal, and can result in damage to the bow. In the patent to Gibbs, U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,834, an improvement is made to allow manually adjustable sliding clamps which are selectively moveable along a beam and where located properly, may be clamped to the beam by tightening bolts or set screws.
Prior bow presses are not easy to adjust, in that the movable components are typically bolted to the bow press or clamped along a beam, thereby requiring the use of wrenches or special care for making necessary adjustments. A more expeditious and convenient adjustment apparatus is needed.
It is desirable, therefore, to provide an improved bow press apparatus and method which overcomes one or more of the problems described above, or other problems and shortcomings of prior bow presses.